Experimentalism in James Tenney's musical theory: form and its perception

Abstract

The article is devoted to James Tenney's methodology of musical analysis. Its main provisions are outlined in the composer's early book Meta+hodos (1961) and subsequently developed in a series of articles. Tenney's methodology is interdisciplinary in nature; the author transfers ideas from Gestalt psychology, which primarily addresses human visual experience, to the field of musical perception. The primary and formative element of a work in Tenney's approach is a primary auditory gestalt, called a “clang.” All subsequent levels of musical form are considered based on this category. Tenney chooses works by A. Schoenberg, A. Webern, C. Ives, E. Varèse, and others as the material for his analysis, which is not accidental. Although Tennie's approach is formally applicable to music of any era and historical style, the need for it arises primarily in music that emerged after the crisis of tonal syntax that became apparent in the 1910s. It is precisely this break with tradition that paves the way not only for original music of the USA, but also for methods of musical analysis that are almost completely detached from traditional European analytical systems and categories.

Keywords

James Tenney, methodology of analysis, experimental music, contemporary music, gestalt, analysis of musical form

For citation

Kristina, R. Agaronian. 2025. “Experimentalism in James Tenney's musical theory: form and its perception.” Zhurnal Obshchestva teorii muzyki / Journal of the Music Theory Society no. 4 (December): 64–78. (In Russian). https://doi.org/10.26176/otmroo.2025.52.4.006